Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

Brad Bird certainly makes an entrance into real-life action in "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol", the latest addition to the action/espionage series that was started back in 1996. Bird, who has until now directed only animation movies (mainly with Pixar), has won two Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature Film for both "Ratatouille" and "The Incredibles".

This movie follows its prequel (directed by J.J. Abrams who is now the producer for this film) closer than previous films have. MI4 follows the IMF team in search of stolen Russian nuclear launch codes. After their adversary, codename Cobalt, blows up the Kremlin and blames the American team, tensions quickly rise between the two nations. The US President initiates "Ghost Protocol" disavowing and essentially completely disassembling the entire IMF division. With the help of the Defense Secretary (Tom Wilkinson), Ethan Hunt and his team are on their own to find and capture Cobalt with no backup, no help, and only the equipment they have on them. And to top it off, Hunt does have a new team now with Benji (Simon Pegg), Jane (Paula Patton), and Brandt (Jeremy Renner), a team he doesn't know if he can trust to work right.

So...whats the good parts? This film has the perfect balance of action and espionage, it doesn't drag, Simon Pegg adds the plucky comical relief at all the right times, and Tom Cruise gets to climb and jump off the tallest building in the world and drive a very nice BMW through the streets of Mumbai.

And the bad parts? As you may expect the action is a tad unrealistic...gasp! Cruise gets the crud beaten out of him, runs through a sandstorm jumps (more than once) off of buildings a tad too high for him. But hey...you've got to expect this part and they pull it off well.

Should you see it this weekend? Yes...go. Go now! And if you have one close by...definitely see it in IMAX. It is worth the ticket price!!